More food poisoning, but not for me

Well if anyone is still reading this weak attempt at keeping you up to date back home I applaud your patience (and have to ask don't you have anything better to do?! ;)

So, food poisoning, purposely, done to the dogs around my house. Evidently this is not an uncommon incidence here. Someone will put a common pesticide (paraquat)into food and set it out for dogs to eat. I don't know if I spelled that right but it is fo-a-neti-klee correct and that is good enough for me. Especially since it is 7:00pm and I am in my office writing this. Back to the issue at hand, the pesticide is very dangerous and kills, quickly if enough is ingested.

Two of my landlord's dogs have died, and two of my neighbor's as well. Charlie, my dog, obviously ate some and is struggling right now. I did take her to the vet and they gave her a shot to help prevent infection because the paraquat caused a large leasion on her tongue and down her throat. I have to force feed her this milky medicine two times a day now. Basically this is to help with the mouth and throat problem, there is nothing we can do about the poison and its effects on the bodies systems. I just have to wait to see if she pulls through.

Now I'm not one for violence but I would be lying if I said I wouldn't like to inflict a little old school Samoan justice on the piece of work that did this. And my landlords and neighbors feel the same way and if he does get caught, he just might get that. I wouldn't stop anyone from doing it that's for sure.

On a lighter note, I am up to my ears in work (is that a lighter note?). A couple of stories have been published in the newspaper about the health project we are working on. The links are here and here.

Last weekend we ran the perimeter relay race for the second year in a row. This year Peace Corps had two teams, a mens and womens. The men won the volunteer category and go! first overall running 104 kilometers in 8 hours and 5 minutes! The womens team also got first in the womens division, so Peace Corps cleaned up! It was a great day and a lot of fun. Unfortunately the newspaper did a really crappy job of covering it so i don't have a link with a story. I am guessing if a local team had won, they might have covered more. After all, no one likes to lose to a palagi! ;)

Ok, I apologize if this is riddled with spelling and grammatical errors but I am rushing this. Wanted to get something up because I know it has been forever since my last post.

Quick note, Whitney is gone and that makes me sad. :'( But 3 and a half more months and i get to bug the crap out of her 24/7 for the rest of our lives! I can't wait.

I'll get pics up of the relay race soon. Possibly this weekend.

Uma!